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If you are visiting Hyde Hall this weekend, then don't forget to look up as you walk around, as the garden seems to be erupting with lofty flower spikes everywhere. On the Dry Garden, the silken silver foliage and bright yellow blooms of Verbascum olympicum make it look as though the area is being guarded by strange botanical sentinels. On the Shrub Rose Border, the assault on the senses begins with a fragrance that envelops you and ends with the sight of spires of Eremurus robustus reaching skyward.

There was one word that would have described the garden this morning as I took a walk around and that was 'frothy'. For lovers of a cottage garden style, this is the perfect time of year with explosions of Aquilegias, Thalictrums, Geraniums, Digitalis and one of my favourites, Anthriscus sylvestris 'Ravenswing'. The borders look as though they're erupting from well shaken champagne bottle, perhaps in celebration of the warm, sunny bank holiday weekend that we've finally been promised.